Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 138

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 138
“What—what are those things?!”
Yi Yeon-jo, peering out from behind the bear pelt draped over the entrance, let out a sharp cry. Even in the dead of night, the glint of armor and weapons made it immediately clear that soldiers were pouring toward us.
“To create such things… what exactly is that instructor?”
Yun Ra-sa muttered in disbelief, quickly nocking another arrow and firing it at the leading soldier climbing up. The fish-scale-like metal plates of the soldier’s fish-scale armor deflected the arrow. The girl spat out a curse of frustration.
“Damn it, I need to hit the head, not the armor! I can’t aim properly in this darkness!”
“I can guide you, Yun Ra-sa.”
“Then how exactly are you going to do that?!”
The world seen through my Heavenly Eye was like water with various pigments swirled together. The landscape appeared hazy because of the qi flowing and pooling like water, but in the dead of night like this when nothing was visible properly, it was far superior to the naked eye.
‘Let me see.’
The bean soldiers rushing forward amid the swirling qi had no eyes, nose, or mouth. Their round, smooth faces were stained yellow, black, or red.
‘Just regular beans, black beans, kidney beans… Could it be that the type of bean they’re made from determines the qi they contain?’
This was actually interesting. Did the created soldiers have different properties based on their nature? Thinking such thoughts, I extended my wing-cloth.
“It’s this way.”
“What is?”
“The head of the bean soldier rushing forward at the very front is in the direction this wing-cloth is pointing.”
Since the soldier was charging forward, the end of my wing-cloth continued to move. Yun Ra-sa, with a skeptical expression, aimed her bow following the wing-cloth.
“The head of the target is where this scrap of cloth is pointing?”
“Yeah. Since they’re not real people but bean soldiers created by the instructor’s ability, it should work fine to just shoot.”
“I don’t care if they were real people.”
Yun Ra-sa answered with a scoff and released the bowstring. The arrow flew with a sharp whistle, and this time it pierced straight through the yellow bean soldier’s exposed head without being blocked by armor.
“…!”
Smoke billowed up with a soft pop, the soldier vanished, and only the bean fell to the ground with a clatter. So this is what happens when you defeat a bean soldier.
‘Hmm, this is actually… quite useful for training the children.’
I finally understood, beyond just his skill, why Heo Gye-gyo—still just a boy—had become an instructor at Seongsul Academy, and specifically in the most demanding Plum Blossom Class.
‘They can fight in real combat conditions without seeing blood. Since he’s directly controlling them, it’s safe too.’
As the soldier reverted to a bean, the pale smoke that rose seemed visible to Yun Ra-sa as well. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she alternated her gaze between my wing-cloth and me with an impressed expression.
“Not bad, huh?”
“It helps, doesn’t it? Better than just sitting around.”
“…Hmph.”
At my words, Yun Ra-sa quickly composed her expression, turned her head sharply, and spoke pointedly.
“They’re swarming in! Point out the next one, quickly!”
“Right, right.”
I pointed my wing-cloth at another bean soldier’s head while glancing down at the area below the wall.
Je-gal Pyo was tearing away the bear pelt blocking the entrance again, and in front of him, Yi Yeon-jo was gripping a Taoist staff he’d drawn with both hands, taking deep breaths. Sensing my gaze, Je-gal Pyo shouted.
“T-the entrance! Yeon-jo says he’ll finish them with the clay figurines!”
Almost simultaneously with Je-gal Pyo’s shout, Yi Yeon-jo struck the ground with his staff. Instead of the mounted clay figurine I’d seen before, a clay figurine as large as a bear, carrying a shield, rose from the earthen floor and took position in front of the open doorway.
‘I’m not sure how strong the bean soldiers are… but the clay figurine should hold them off to some degree.’
“Damn it, there are too many! Watch the entrance!”
Yun Ra-sa called out a warning.
Despite the arrows felling numerous bean soldiers in quick succession, their sheer numbers meant that the bean soldiers eventually reached the earthen wall.
“Hold the line!”
Yi Yeon-jo barked the command at Tou. The clay figure stepped forward with his shield, completely blocking the narrow entrance. A bean soldier’s blade flashed like lightning, cleaving Tou’s head in two.
“Not on my watch!”
Yi Yeon-jo struck the ground with his earthen staff, and Tou’s severed head fused back together. The helmeted black bean head tilted in confusion before swinging its sword again. This time, Tou raised his shield and deflected the blow.
‘He’s holding up better than I expected?’
As the bean soldiers closed in from all sides, Yun Ra-sa stowed her bow and drew her dagger.
“Hey, I don’t need your help anymore! It’s dangerous—get inside!”
I caught the girl as she lunged toward the swarm of bean soldiers, using my wing-cloak to hold her back.
“Ow! What are you doing?”
“Wait a moment.”
While restraining Yun Ra-sa, I extended the opposite end of my wing-cloak toward the spot where that rock lay—the one I’d thrown aside during introductions.
Yun Ra-sa stared blankly in the direction my wing-cloak was pointing.
“…You’re going to throw that at them?”
“Yeah. Stay up there so you don’t get caught in it.”
“Insane…”
Yun Ra-sa muttered what sounded like an exclamation of disbelief. I hoisted the boulder high with my wing-cloak and dropped it onto the cluster of soldiers below.
With a thunderous crash, dust billowed up from where the rock landed. Since the ground sloped downward from the stronghold to the valley, the tumbling boulder crushed a whole swath of bean soldiers into dust as it rolled.
‘Wow, I think I’ve pulverized about a third of them? Are there any more rocks?’
As I surveyed the area with satisfaction, Heo Gye-gyo’s voice drifted down from the sky above.
“Ha ha, I didn’t anticipate that. Impressive in many ways… but wrong.”
Heo Gye-gyo smiled broadly and extended his hand. More beans rained down, sprouting into fresh bean soldiers.
‘They’re multiplying again? Defeating these soldiers isn’t the answer?’
I stopped searching for another rock.
‘Wait, what did Heo Gye-gyo just say? That it was wrong?’
What does that mean? Is fighting the bean soldiers not the correct solution?
“Hey, let go of me already! The entrance is about to be breached!”
Yun Ra-sa grabbed the wing-cloak around her waist and shrieked urgently. I released her reflexively, and the girl leaped down toward the earthen wall, stomping hard on the back of a bean soldier’s head as it was about to strike Tou’s skull.
“Mud lump! You’re still alive?”
“Ugh, hack, who are you calling a mud lump, cough, gag.”
Yi Yeon-jo, now visibly haggard, tried to protest but broke into a coughing fit instead. Looking closer, I realized that while Tou was holding his own, Yi Yeon-jo’s spiritual energy was being rapidly depleted as he continuously replenished the earthen wall against the soldiers’ assault.
‘Scratch that—he’s not holding up well! The kid’s going to collapse at this rate!’
Alarmed, I dove down to cast a healing spell, but Je-gal Pyo blocked my path.
“Why, squad leader?”
“S-she said it was wrong, the instructor just now.”
“Yeah, she did.”
I nodded and rapidly voiced the thoughts racing through my mind.
“Does that mean fighting those soldiers isn’t the answer? Should we hide or run instead? Or maybe…”
“S-s-she said it was wrong, but then reinforced the soldiers.”
Je-gal Pyo’s eyes gleamed behind his glasses.
“To win against soldiers that keep, keep, keep being replenished, we either have to somehow hold out, hold out, hold out until they can’t send any more….”
Je-gal Pyo, who had been watching the swaying Yi Yeon-jo for a moment, lifted his head high. I too raised my head and picked up on Je-gal Pyo’s words.
“…We need to stop the replenishment itself, right? By attacking the person doing the replenishing.”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“So the answer was that direction. But how?”
Heo Gye-gyo, who hovered in the night sky with his wings spread wide, smiled brightly down at us. When I unconsciously frowned, the beautiful boy pretended to be hurt and playfully drooped his eyebrows.
‘…No matter how I look at it, he doesn’t seem like the type to just stand there and take it.’
In that instant, various treasures I could pull from the Eight Pillar Order and Gwang-chul wrapped around my wrist flashed through my mind.
As ‘Sang Ra-hee-yo’, I could think of many ways to attack Heo Gye-gyo… but they’re all things I can’t do as ‘Se-ru-hwa, a student of Plum Blossom Class’.
What do I do?
“W-w-wait a m-m-m-moment.”
Je-gal Pyo trembled beside me and whispered. When I leaned in with my ear extended, he froze bright red, then whispered in a mosquito-thin voice.
“…It might be worth trying?”
“W-will it w-work?”
“Let’s try it first. We have to try something before Yi Yeon-jo collapses. Yun Ra-sa! Yi Yeon-jo!”
I immediately called out to them and rushed forward.
* * *
‘That wing garment… it’s really fascinating.’
Heo Gye-gyo flapped his wings slowly, observing the silver-haired girl below with narrowed eyes. The jade-colored fabric that wrapped around the girl was semi-transparent and fluttering, yet it neither tore nor lost its tremendous strength.
‘It was said to be made by borrowing the divine power of a god that had descended. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’
Two years ago, at the mere age of fourteen, he became a member of the Blood Plum Squad of the Jagyogapsa. He had beaten down all those who refused to accept him because he was too young.
‘During my time at the Jagyogapsa, I’ve seen quite a few Shamans… but I’ve never seen one like that girl.’
Shamans generally had diverse personalities depending on the household god they served. Still, there were some commonalities to a certain extent, but Se-ru-hwa deviated from that in many ways.
‘She’s the first Shaman to serve a new god and currently the only one. Is that why she’s so unusual?’
He didn’t like it.
Heo Gye-gyo looked down at the silver-haired girl moving busily below. Within the smiling boy’s face, only his jade-green eyes sank coldly.
‘I keep finding myself anticipating it.’
A cursed bloodline. One that killed his grandfather and grandmother, killed his father, drove his mother to madness, and would eventually kill Heo Gye-gyo himself—a curse flowing through the blood.
Whether that girl could break that curse for him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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